To the surprise of virtually no one, Senate Republicans unanimously returned Midnight Mitch McConnell (thanks for the awesome nicknames, Democrats!) to his seat as Senate Majority leader. Reporters outside the room where the vote took place reported hearing applause and cheering after the vote was taken. McConnell has arguably been the biggest thorn in the collective side of the Democrats outside of Donald Trump for the past four years and Cocaine Mitch, now 78 years young, is poised to continue his track record. (NY Post)
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R. Ky) was unanimously re-elected Senate Majority Leader on Tuesday, continuing his reign as one of the most powerful figures in Washington.
The Republican conference bestowed the honor on McConnell, according to a report by NBC News reporter Garrett Haake, who said applause could be heard from outside the room…
Republicans under McConnell’s stewardship are poised to keep control of the Senate, but face two fiercely-contested runoff elections in Georgia in January.
McConnell continues to defy expectations. I eventually lost track of how many millions of dollars the Democrats flushed into the campaigns of Amy McGrath and some Libertarian nobody had ever heard of in Kentucky, but in the end, the race wasn’t really even close. The Alpha Predator of Politics has already established his legacy by helping President Trump fill judicial vacancies at the federal level with strict, originalist judges from bottom to top at a rate that would make The Flash envious.
But his future, at least for the next two years, isn’t set in stone yet. As of this writing, there are four unsettled Senate seats. The GOP is currently holding 48 to the Democrats’ 48 (including two “independents” who caucus with them). In Alaska, Republican Dan Sullivan is currently doubling his opponent’s vote total, but they apparently still count votes up there using polar bear teeth in a jar or something, so we won’t know the result for a while. Sullivan does appear to be in good shape, though. In North Carolina, Republican Thom Tillis is hanging on to a nearly 100,000 vote lead over Cal Cunningham with 98% of the vote counted. That one isn’t entirely locked up either, but it doesn’t look too bad.
And yet, even if the GOP takes both of those seats, assuming Joe Biden is the next president, they still need to win at least one of the two runoff races in Georgia to keep Mitch in the Majority Leader’s office. That’s probably going to end up being the most expensive pair of Senate races in history at the rate we’re going and the outcome is uncertain.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will once again say that keeping hold of the Senate Majority is, if anything, even more important than keeping the White House. With Mitch McConnell in charge there, Joe Biden’s options for any sort of sweeping, progressive legislative agenda being passed become very limited. McConnell will also have his hand on the throttle (or brakes) in terms of Biden filling up empty seats on the federal bench. But if we lose either of those Georgia races, Kamala Harris will probably wind up having to move a cot into the Senate chambers so she can keep breaking 50-50 ties. And I don’t even want to think about what the next two years look like if that’s the case.
